Harry and Meghan's treatment echoes Diana's, her brother says

The brother of Princess Diana, Charles Spencer, says her son, Prince Harry, and his wife, Meghan, should be given official security as the media now treat them much the same way as they treated his sister in the years leading up to her death.

Diana died aged 36 in a 1997 Paris car crash as photographers pursued her on motorbikes, sparking an outpouring of grief and a reckoning over whether the media bore some responsibility after it splashed details of her life across front pages for years.

Earl Spencer has been speaking to media in the run-up to the publication of his book about Diana, which has been highly critical of her former husband, the now-King Charles.

"From a security aspect, as an uncle who's seen his sister die in very, very preventable circumstances, I would veer towards protection," Earl Spencer told the BBC.

He said the tabloid treatment of Diana, and Harry and Meghan, could be "really, really unpleasant", that it was "beholden on people" to learn from that experience.

Spencer's book makes international headlines

Earl Spencer's book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, has made headlines around the world after it accused the now-King Charles of making incendiary comments in the days after the death.

In the book, Earl Spencer accuses Diana's former husband, the then-prince of Wales, of sounding "giddily elated" in the hours after her death and said an angry Charles had told Spencer that the world would forget Diana soon enough.

In a rare move, the palace hit back by saying the king was "mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory in ⁠ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss".

Asked by the BBC how he could prove the conversations had taken place, Earl Spencer said he had included a specific line in his much-lauded eulogy at Diana's funeral to counter the comments, ending it by saying she would "never be extinguished from our minds".

Earl Spencer said he had written the book, ahead of the 30th anniversary of her death, to celebrate her life. 

He said their childhood never had a dull moment. "We both have ADHD," he said. "She was never diagnosed, but clearly we did."

The publication of the book and the surprise return of Harry and Meghan to Britain after they spent six years living in the US pose a challenge for the king, who is still undergoing treatment for cancer.

Diana's family accused the royals of showing a lack of support or care towards the late princess before her death, a charge that was repeated by Harry and Meghan about their personal experience before they quit royal duties in 2020 to move abroad.

Harry has criticised the government's decision to strip him and his family of automatic police protection afforded to other senior royals, ⁠after he quit royal duties. 

Following a long-running legal battle, that is now under review.

Earl Spencer, who recently hosted the couple, has serialised his book through the Daily Mail, just months after Harry lost an expensive privacy lawsuit against the tabloid.

Earl Spencer said his revelations about Charles would not come as a surprise to Harry or his older brother, heir-to-the-throne Prince William, and said while he knew many more details about the king he had chosen not to include them.